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That makes a lot of sense, though! I love that they do make jokes about her name, like in the episode where they go to the rib restaurant, and the guy says "Oh, like Wisconsin."
 

 

I'm surprised at how much we're seeing of Laurie outside of the agency. Before I really dug into what the show was, I always assumed it was dueling modeling agencies, Racine's and the Harpers'. The storylines are interesting, so I'm enjoying it. Lol at them making such a huge deal out of [Taryn in the opening]John Waite!?[/Taryn].

 

Re: Glitter. Lalo Schifrin really said "Two solid minutes, damn it."

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I think Laurie's home life is pretty much dropped towards the end thankfully. I would've liked to have seen at least a full season of Paper Dolls since it's obvious they tried to course correct a bit towards the end, but of course it was already too late at that point and they aired the series finale December 25th (!). I thought the biggest issue was that it was like we were coming in on season 3 of a show rather than season 1. All successful prime time soaps of the 80s and 90s seemed to have a slow start.

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Yes, everything kinda started happening right away. I was surprised to see the "To be continued..." at the end of each episode like early Dynasty - figured that wouldn't be a necessity by 1984 when primetime TV had already been knee-deep in soapland for years, but the way they started it, I can see why they would want to make sure viewers never missed an episode. The story with David and the loan shark advanced a lot in just three or four episodes.

It also gives me miniseries vibes, like Valley of the Dolls + Hollywood Wives + Dynasty + Knots Landing.

The Dack/Morgan combo is gold. Two people synonymous with the 80s primetime soap glamour who deserved more prominent, longer-running roles.

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Finished Paper Dolls, and I am UPSET that this was cancelled halfway through the season! So many juicy cliffhangers! Is Marjorie dead? Probably so! What did Mark find out about Racine? I bet she has a kid! David is a huge loser, so will the review from Carr finally push him to off himself? I hope so. What will Laurie's stalker do next? He better leave my Chris alone.

 

There were ups and downs with this series, but it ultimately was as good as any of the longer-running primetime soaps. Once we got out of the John Waite nonsense and David with the loan shark, things really improved. Colette Ferrier's arrival was not as interesting as it could have been, though I figure there would have been more juiciness with her once Racine and Wesley's schemes were revealed.

I think one of the problems with the show is that it was missing that central rivalry that is so important to business-based soaps. The closest we got to it was Wesley vs. David, but these guys were in two totally different leagues. Wesley vs. Colette would have been much better had the show had more time to develop that, but alas. Julia vs. Dinah was fun, but we never really had a reason to root for Julia outside of her just being a fun bitch.

 

The cast also had some filler, and it's like they knew it. Most of the cast gets multiple shots in the opening, but then there's that quick sequence of Anne Schedeen, John Bennett Perry, and Nancy Olson right in the middle, as if to say "Hey, they're here, but...they're not gonna do much. But they're here." They all could have been written out after serving their initial purposes.

 

Racine was a fun character. I appreciate that she wasn't just a schemer. Outside of her plots with Wesley, she was just an assertive and savvy businesswoman with a taste for men.

I'm just so sad that this didn't last at least a full season. I think of Yellow Rose, which just limped along for 22 episodes not really knowing what it wanted to be, never really feeling its footing, but then Paper Dolls hit the ground running, rolled through some meh story, and then settled into great primetime soap but was gone in an instant.

Emerald Point NAS is next on my list of short-lived nighttime soaps. Any thoughts from anyone?

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I binged Emerald Point some years ago and I was disappointed. In short, it was boring. Frankly, I wish it had tried to be more like Dynasty. Boasting that it was from the creators of Dynasty did it no favors and almost felt misleading as it lacked pop, sizzle, and pizazz. I’m not saying that the Shapiros’ creativity should have been limited to churning out Dynasty knockoffs, but Emerald Point did nothing to improve their brand.

 

The show had some great cast members who couldn’t even save it. I really liked Patrick O’Neal as Harlan and nothing against Robert Vaughan, but I wish O’Neal had done the full season. And by the way, I stand firm that The Golden Girls got Lloyd Bochner’s character, primetime TV star Patrick Vaughan’s name from this show.

 

I seem to remember that Sela Ward was the highlight of the series. I won’t spoil, but she has IMO the most memorable scene of the entire season which involves the Eurythmics.


@All My Shadows Where did you watch Paper Dolls? I saw the pilot movie at the Paley Center, and by the time I finally got SoapNet, I wasn’t able to catch it all.

 

By the way, has anyone seen the original TV movie with Joan Collins as Racine?


I also need to watch Flamingo Road. I was all set to binge Connie minus one or two episodes that weren’t uploaded. I made myself a private playlist that YouTube promptly deleted. I was so pissed.

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I want to rewatch Flamingo Road from beginning to end so so so so bad. I watched it when I was 13, for goodness sake. It makes no sense why there isn't a one-and-done DVD set of both seasons with Morgan and Mark's faces plastered all over it.

 

Paper Dolls is on YouTube. I feared during my whole time watching it that I'd go to it one day and it'd all be gone, but it's still up. I think there's a clip of the original movie, but not the full thing.

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Some background to explain Paper Doll's ultimate failure.

ABC itself was looking at dipping to third place for the first time in years due to the failure to come up with new shows to replace long running shows that were fading - Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Three's Company, Happy days etc

Their only successes had been Dynasty and Hotel so they went with a lot of soapy drama to fill the gaps.

Paper Dolls, Glitter, Finder of Lost Loves,Call to Glory etc

Paper Dolls was slotted Tuesday @9. No soap had had success at 9. Bare Essence, Flamingo Road and Knots Landing had all flopped at 9pm. Dallas and Dynasty had garnered big ratings @ 10 before moving to 9pm.

In addition NBC was exploding on Tuesday due to A Team and had a hold on viewers.

After an acceptable 29 share in its premiere, Paper Dolls had to face the second half of a 2 hr A Team on NBC and part 2 of Mistral's Daughter on CBS a big soapy miniseries on CBS.

The result

Wk1

#5 A Team 21.7/34

# 12 Mistral's Daughter Part 2 18.7/30

# 44 Paper Dolls 13.8/21

Then the following week  Wk 2, ABC had baseball playoffs, so no Paper Dolls.

The following week NBC had the world series

Wk 3

#3 World Series NBC 27.7/44

# 49 Paper Dolls 12.7/19

#56 CBS Movie 10.9/16

Wk 4

#10 Riptide 20.8/33

#41 Paper Dolls 13.6/21 

#54 CBS Movie 12.2/20

Wk 5

#6 Riptide 22.4/34

#41 Paper Dolls 14.5/22

#60 CBS Movie 11.5/19

Wk 6

#5 CBS Movie

#20 Riptide 17.7/27

#65 Paper Dolls 10.6/16

Wk 7

Election coverage on all networks

Wk 8

???

Wk 9

#15 Riptide 17.2/27

#57 CBS Movie 12.4/20

# 58 Paper Dolls 12.1/21

WK 10 

Paper Dolls moves to 10pm

#27 Remington Steele 17.1/29

#57 CBS Movie 11.5/17

#68 Paper Dolls 9.9/17

Wk 11

#27 Remington Steele 17.6/30

#54 Paper Dolls 12.6/22 (Barbara Walters lead in)

#57 CBS Movie 12.5/20

Wk 12

#15 Remington Steele 18.6/32

#32 CBS Movie 14.2/23

#62 Paper Dolls 9.9/17 (now with Glitter as lead in)

Wk 13

#14 Remington Steele 18.4/37

#56 Paper Dolls 10.1/20

#60 Kennedy Center Honors 7.5/15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Paul Raven
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I had such high hopes for The Monroes, like it was going to be The Colbys all over again. I was in the 10th grade I think and my media production teacher did some moonlighting on set when they shot on location. But the show was shuffled around and put on a long hiatus. I remember them airing the first episode again weeks after the premiere hoping to catch an audience.

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The Monroes

Preview Tues @ 10 

14. Dateline NBC 13.1/23

30. The Monroes 10.8/19

69. CBS Movie 7.2/12

 

Regular timeslot Thurs @ 9

1. Seinfeld 16.9/28

3. Mad About You 16.5/27

52. New York Undercover 8.3/14

70. The Monroes 7.0/12

96. Color Me Barbra 4.2/7 (1960's Streisand special)

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November 1976

 Women Given Break In 'Executive Suite By John N. Goudas NEW YORK (KFS) -

"Executive Suite," 'CBS' glossy prime-time soap opera, hasn't really caught on with the viewers as yet, but it is building. It's the type of show that might sneak Into the hit status if it gets the chance to stay on the air. The women's movement should be pleased that "Executive Suite" has more parts for actresses than any other TV series of recent memory, and one of the most beautiful and talented members of the fine cast is Sharon Acker, who plays the harried Helen Walling, wife and mother.

Ms. Acker's lovely face should immediately conjure up one of TV's prestigious series from the recent past, "The Senator," in which she co-starred (again as a wife) with Hal Holbrook. She describes her association with the short-lived but still-remember "Senator" as a happy and unhappy time. Happy because it was her first starring part in a TV series and unhappy because she was let go in an attempt to refurbish the series which won awards but didn't rack up the high ratings. "I wasn't informed that they were considering minimizing my part, It just began to happen and finally I approached the powers behind the show about it, and they left me no choice but to leave before I was reduced to a voice over the phone," the actress said.

The whole thing is academic now since that was some years back, but you could still catch a fleeting flash of pain in Ms. Acker's eyes when she recalls the affair. Of course, there's no chance of that happening to Sharon In "Executive Suite" since she figures Importantly In the plot lines.. However, there are so many plot lines running simultaneously in the series, based on the popular 1954 movie, that Sharon and the rest of the company have to make their moments on screen count. Just before the series was scheduled to go into production, Sharon got together with her TV family, husband (Mitchell Ryan), son (Leigh McCloskey), and daughter (Wendy Phillips) and the quartet of conscientious and caring actors worked to create the feeling of being a family. The obvious immersion and real joy she displays when she talks about acting keeps the subject fascinating even to the most inexperienced layman. Even though Sharon Acker could pass for 30 years old, she's the mother of four teen-age daughters in private life.

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